DNA repair enzymes preferentially repair mismatched bases on the newly synthesized DNA strand,
using the old DNA strand as a template. If mismatches were repaired instead without regard for
which strand served as template, would mismatch repair reduce replication errors? Would such an
indiscriminate mismatch repair result in fewer mutations, more mutations, or the same number of
mutations as there would have been without any repair at all? Explain your answers.
If a mismatch is not repaired at all then 50% of the copies of the DNA-strand will be mutated (and the strand itself will stay mutated)
If a mismatch is repaired there is a 50% chance that the mutated strand is used and a 50% chance that the original strand is used as template for repairing.
So there would be the same amount of mutations as if there is no repairing at all.